Marin Voice: Las Gallinas should repair faulty sewer laterals based on risk, not home sales

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The Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District plant in San Rafael. The daily flow is about 2.2 million gallons in dry weather and 20 million gallons or more during storms. (Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal)

The Marin Association of Realtors is pleased to see that the Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary District is proposing to address issues with sewer laterals. We support improving these laterals, along with sewer mains, to reduce Inflow and Infiltration.

However, we are concerned to find that the district is proposing to address the problems by targeting inspections and replacements at residents who are trying to sell their homes. People sell their homes for many reasons, including medical issues, job relocation and downsizing, among others. We do not believe it would be fair to make those engaged in a difficult and stressful sale process to also replace a sewer lateral. It will make the sale process more difficult, may even kill some sales, and will likely target the wrong laterals. A district-wide program like this should focus on the entire community and should first target homes most at risk.

Aside from fairness, using home sales to require replacements is problematic for several reasons. For one, no one knows which homes will sell when. Instead of targeting the laterals based on probable risk, the district’s approach is to rely on the random nature of home sales. It would be much more effective and fair to prioritize homes that may have a higher need for repairs. For example, older homes, homes with many trees on the lot, those with high water tables or sea rise concerns and wildlife habitat issues, among others.

The district notes a commitment to improving sewers as expeditiously as possible. Yet with 15,000 customer accounts, it would take about 44 years to work through the homes based on home sales alone. And, we know that some homes sell multiple times, while others never sell, adding to the length of time to work through those households. All the while focusing on only those homes that randomly sell, not those with higher risks.

In their letter to homeowners, the district states that this is no different than replacing things like furnaces, roofs or electrical panels. Yet imagine replacing those items based only on when a home happens to sell, rather than need because of other factors like age.

The district has stated they intend to also rehab their own sewer mains. The Marin Association of Realtors suggests that the district focus on the inventory of homes based on its own schedule of sewer main rehab and the risk factors above. As certain areas get their mains rehabbed, it would be complementary and logical to focus on the riskier home laterals on those same streets. Streets with deteriorated mains might also have deteriorated laterals.

Although the district should be commended for including a two-year time frame after a sale to replace the lateral, this simply misunderstands the sale process and legal disclosure duties. Any seller would have to inform a potential buyer of the impending replacement, making it part of the sale process. A seller could not ignore this disclosure without risk of a likely lawsuit.

In addition, we believe imposing lateral inspections/replacements for low cost remodels (the $15,000 threshold is a minor project) is bad policy for all the reasons above, as well as a disincentive for homeowners to improve the housing stock. Why would a homeowner go through all the issues of lateral replacement for the sake of a minor remodel? Even worse, it will be an incentive for some homeowners to do remodels without a permit.

We urge the district to reconsider this random approach in favor of a more systematic selection of homes based on risk.

Gene Laico works for Coldwell Banker and is the president Marin Association of Realtors